Grisly Reality
by RedClyde
Summary: Several years after the fall of Shinra, the world is far from what AVALANCHE thought it would be.


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Grisly Reality

**

Shinra was gone. So were Sephiroth and Meteor, and Jenova. The world was supposed to be a better place. But the result was far from that.

Without Shinra, the world was in a muddle. Shinra produced the majority of just about everything that the world used. It was the central power and it controlled everything, although in a cruel way, and therefore kept everything organized. It was obvious that with Shinra in shambles, the world was about to face some hard times.

But it didn't turn bad immediately. At first, people rejoiced. Marches and celebrations were held throughout the world. Yet, as the months passed, the people came to realize the grim truth: They were dependent on Shinra.

As poverty engulfed millions, people looked for a scapegoat. The perfect choice was AVALANCHE. The very same people that had been looked up as heroes were now labeled as national criminals with charges of trying to destroy the Planet and Mankind itself. It was utter nonsense, but under extreme circumstances, people will believe just about anything.

So with rewards set as high as billions of gil, every AVALANCHE member became a target and was hunted down. Seventy-five percent of the population believed that rebuilding their crumbled civilization was more important but still kept an eye out for Cloud and his friends.

A few years brought many changes. Junon and Wutai were now the major powers, controlling a total of 85% of the world's market. The smaller towns were seeked out and commandeered by the Two Powers. Junon had seized control of Kalm, Mideel, Fort Condor, Bone Village and Icicle Inn. Wutai took Rocket Town, Nibelheim, Gongaga, Corel, and Costa de Sol. The towns had by no means the manpower to resist, and fell to the more powerful Powers. But as all this unraveled, conflict started to erupt between Wutai and Junon. No one announced it openly, but there was a growing distrust between the Two Powers.

* * *

The ninja slowly walked through the dense jungles located somewhere west of Gongaga. Yuffie had her hand down to her shuriken with a tight grip, for she expected something was nearby. She couldn't really tell, but she felt a presence, and nowadays, that could only mean trouble.

She had been walking for hours now, and it was way past midnight. She was physically and mentally exhausted. Darkness prevented her from seeing much more than a few feet in all directions. It was hot and humid here, and the smell of vegetation was in the air. The only sound she could hear was her own feet rustling through the grass.

She really didn't know how to summarize these past few years. They had passed so fast. But what she certainly did not expect was that she would be hunted for trying to save the world. It didn't make any sense when the hunt for AVALANCHE started, and even now she could not squeeze any reason out of it. As if killing an AVALANCHE member would right all the wrongs in the world.

But the people seemed to be at a loss to grasp that concept.

AVALANCHE was split up. It wasn't really intentional, but with the world after them it was pretty much inevitable. One way or another, they were going to end up on their own. And that's exactly what happened to Yuffie. She had been traveling alone for the better part of three years. She didn't have a clue about what happened to the others, but sometimes she really wished for just anyone. Fighting the loneliness was one of her biggest struggles, because she couldn't trust anyone if she valued her life.

The worse thing was that almost EVERYONE was out for them. Even her own dad turned against her and had her chased right out of Wutai. Actually, if she hadn't escaped, she wouldn't be alive this very day. It was very hard to come by a person who didn't want to slit her throat just as soon as he saw her. The days of Shinra seem like heaven now…

A sudden noise in the bushes to her left made her freeze. She looked at the direction the noise came from, but could only see the vegetation that was throughout the forest. Despite that she slowly crouched down to decrease the chances that if someone _was_ there, he wouldn't see her. And sure enough, a few moments later three men walked casually out of the bushes. Yuffie dashed to her right, behind a tree. She hoped the men didn't notice her.

"Hua ha ha. Not much farther now, boys." She heard one of the men say. He had a low voice, kind of similar to Barret's. This brought back memories of the good ol' days when AVALANCHE was all together and still fighting Sephiroth.

"Gongaga shouldn't be too far away," the man continued, "but I think we should camp for the night. It's rather late…"

Yuffie listened closely to try and predict any sign of danger. She heard rustling of leaves and grass, but no more talking. Then everything was quiet. She stayed still for a minute, listening for and expecting more noise, but nothing came. It was silent.

Then, with circumspect, she turns to look over to where the men were. She stops once she can see a reasonable amount of the area, but spots no one. She turns back around with her back against the tree but has less than a second to think before a spear embeds itself into the trunk centimeters from her face. 

Yuffie feels a pain in her cheek and touches it with her hand. She brings her hand into eyesight and even in the darkness sees it is red with blood.

Looking in front of her to where the spear came she spots the three men from before.

The three young men wore some kind of military clothes and each sported a long spear, except for the one in the middle, which held a long sword. But Yuffie notices something else about the man in the middle…his eyes…they are glowing…

"Snap! I missed!" the man on the right says.

"Don't worry," the one on the left quickly responds, "let me take care of it!" He starts to run forward but the sword man stops him with his arm.

"No." he says simply, "wait."

Yuffie, getting over her shock, draws out her shuriken and gets into a battle position.

The swordsman sees this but still takes slow steps forward.

"Ha ha ha…you actually want to fight us?"

Yuffie narrows her eyes on the men, examining every detail a million miles per hour for any sneaky movements.

The swordsman stops when he gets about five feet away from Yuffie.

"AVALANCHE is no more…you're just a bunch of scattered rats running away from their fate…"

Yuffie did not respond but did not for a second take her eyes off any of the men.

"A few members have already been killed…"

The swordsman's sentence pierced Yuffie's heart.

"…And now…it's your turn!"

In a flash the swordsman closed the gap between himself and Yuffie and swung his sword, but Yuffie was quick enough to leap out of harm's way and land gracefully on two feet not too far away.

The tree behind where she previously stood creaked, and fell over with a loud thud. This surprised the ninja, for there were only two people she knew had that much skill with a sword. Cloud and Sephiroth.

But this man was neither. Yet he had obvious training in swords, and by the look of his eyes, he was Mako infused.

"Oh," he said, turning to where Yuffie now stood, "I didn't expect you to escape that one."

But before time for a response was even given the other two men dashed forward, swinging their lances. She ducks a shot and flips backwards, swinging her shuriken. It hits one of the men, who is knocked off his feet. The other swings around in a full circle and manages to hit Yuffie in the arm. She yelps in surprise and trips backwards, laying still on the ground.

The man is taken back by the ease of downing an AVALANCHE member. He carefully walks up to the unmoving Yuffie, keeping his spear pointed right at her. Once he gets within reach, however, Yuffie kicks out, sending his spear flying ten feet away. She sweeps his feet from under him, then front flips, landing with her knees on the man's gut.

She slowly stands up, panting heavily. She had already been exhausted before, and after this she could barely stand up. Her muscles ached with fatigue. The ninja looks up to see the swordsman with smile on his face.

"Impressive," he says, "these were two of my best men…but don't get too confident. You'll have a much harder time defeating me."

He charges forward, barely giving Yuffie time for a breather. She drops to the floor and rolls underneath him, then jumps up and runs to her shuriken. Picking it up she swings around and throws it as hard as she can. It cuts the air, but is sliced in half by the man's sword. He charges forward and swings his sword again, but Yuffie ducks and rolls to her left. He spins around and lowers his stance, sweeping the ground with his blade but Yuffie hops over it and roundhouses the man. Her foot hits the man right in the face.

He stops and bows his head. He spits out some blood and looks up, a fire in his eyes.

"Now you've made me mad."

Faster than Yuffie thought possible he flew at her, striking her in the stomach with the handle of his sword. He executes his own roundhouse kick which hits Yuffie in the side, then another one which slams her in the chest, knocking her down on her back several feet away. He then stands over the downed Yuffie with his sword centimeters from her neck.

Yuffie is exhausted, and observes that trying to escape from this situation would probably be useless. She is breathing heavily, and can almost feel the steel against her neck.

"My job gets easier and easier…" the man said with a smile. He pulls his sword up and prepares to thrust it downward.

Yuffie closes her eyes. Is this…the end?

Just as the swordsman is about to thrust the sword into Yuffie, a blonde man appears out of nowhere and tackles the swordsman off Yuffie. The ninja is surprised by the sudden turn of events, and looks up at the other blonde man, but before he can get a good look he runs toward the swordsman that moments before threatened Yuffie's life.

The swordsman is now up and clashes swords with the blonde man as Yuffie watches from a sitting position not too far away. They connect, duck, sweep, and jump, almost like it was scripted and they were putting on a show. But this was very real. The blonde man finally proves to be too fast for the swordsman, and knocks him off his feet. The swordsman scrambles up but the blonde man swings his sword around and thrusts it straight into the swordsman's heart. He screams in agony as his life is ended and his body falls nimbly to the floor. The other two men that had helped the swordsman are now up, but after seeing the display of power by the sudden newcomer they run off in fear.

The blonde man turns around and walks toward Yuffie. She crawls back in fear, thinking this was another person wanting to see AVALANCHE dead and claim the prize of killing a member by himself. But as a few rays of moonlight illuminated the man's face, all her fears disappeared and were turned into relief and joy.

"Cloud!" Yuffie struggles up and runs forward, wrapping her arms around Cloud in a tight hug. He doesn't hug back at first, but once she almost falls over from exhaustion, he embraces and supports her up. "Cloud…you saved my life…"

Cloud looks down at her. Those same, deep blue eyes she had come to know in their adventures.

"I'm just glad I got to you in time…" he said in a caring voice.

She buried her head in his chest, feeling much more protected. She was also very happy to not have to be alone again.

"Cloud…" she starts, "I'm so happy to see you!" Yuffie could feel her eyes getting wet.

"Me too, Yuffie…" he said, then noticing the cut on her cheek he added, "you're hurt. We should rest here for tonight."

She nodded and stayed by his side as he slowly made his way to a nearby tree and sat down next to it. She leaned on him and closed her eyes.

"How long has it been, Cloud?"

"About…four years…"

"…"

"You've grown a great deal, Yuffie. You're very strong…"

"Ever since we all got separated, I've learned a thing or two about protecting myself…"

"Where have you been all this time?"

"Just about everywhere. Trying to stay alive…what about you?"

"I was separated from Tifa and the others. I've been searching for AVALANCHE survivors all this time."

"Well…you found me…"

"Yeah…"

"Cloud…?"

"Yes?"

"Are the reports true? Are they…dead?"

"…"

"Tell me the truth…"

"Some of them are true…Barret and Reeve are surely dead…so is Vincent…and……"

"…and? What's the matter?"

"…Tifa…she…"

"Cloud…I'm sorry."

"No, it's not your fault…the others, Cid and Red XIII. I don't think they're dead, but no one knows where they are."

"…Cloud…promise me something…"

"What?"

"Promise me you'll never leave me again…"


End file.
